


The Betrayal

by thewightknight



Series: The Lies Jedi Tell [1]
Category: Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones, Star Wars Prequel Trilogy
Genre: Canon Divergence, F/M, alternate romance, but what if, not the jedi way
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-12
Updated: 2016-02-12
Packaged: 2018-05-20 00:20:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,276
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5986012
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thewightknight/pseuds/thewightknight
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Anakin discovers a secret</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Betrayal

**Author's Note:**

> I can't find the post on tumblr to link to, but it stuck with me. It was basically "Why would Padmé bother with whiny boy child Anakin when she's got OBI WAN KENOBI hanging around all the time?"
> 
>  **EDITED TO ADD** : [FOUND IT!!!](http://one-second-and-a-million-miles.tumblr.com/post/137135965749/its-been-almost-17-years-and-i-still-dont-know)

Anakin tried to empty his mind, focus on his meditations, but his feelings kept intruding. Padmé. It was wrong, forbidden, this love he felt for her. It went against everything the Jedi believed. He needed to separate himself from these feelings. But Padmé.

As it always happened, when he tried not to think of her he found her, her mind bright and gleaming, her thoughts a beacon. He tried to turn away and failed again. There was something about her today, something that drew him even more than usual. He fell into a trance without noticing, eyelids flickering behind closed lids as a vision claimed him. Padme, shock flashing across her face. Padme falling backwards onto her bed, hands outstretched. A scream. A look of horror crossed her face, her arms raised up in a warding gesture. She was in danger, or soon would be. Without thought Anakin rose his feet, lightsaber flying across the room into his outstretched hands as he ran out of his rooms and towards the senator’s chambers.

There were no guards before her door, and the feeling of dread in his stomach intensified. After the attempts on her life, he and Obi Wan had arranged it that she would never be left unprotected. Her door was locked but the mechanism gave way under his thoughts. He entered her quarters, silently, eyes scanning for the threat that had not yet materialized. The rooms were empty but for a faint wisp of her presence. She was here somewhere, he could feel it, but the sense was muted somehow, almost shielded from his mind. Strange.

A muffled cry sounded from her bedchamber. Noiselessly he raced across the room, lightsaber in hand. He burst through the door, then skidded to a stop, his brain unable to process the scene before him, clothes strewn across the floor, Padmé and Obi Wan tangled together in her bed. Padmé screamed as the door shattered and Obi Wan rolled to one side. His lightsaber flew into his hand as he prepared to meet a threat. On seeing Anakin, a series of expressions flickered across his face. Guilt. Shame. Resignation. 

“You ... you told me this was forbidden. That I should put aside my feelings. And now I find you … like this.” Anakin raised his lightsaber, and just as in his vision, he saw shock on Padme’s face, then horror as she sat cast herself between him and Obi Wan, arms raised as if to protect him from Anakin’s wrath.

“Ani! Don’t,” she begged.

“Anakin,” Obi Wan began, and he cut him off.

“You were my friend!” Anakin cried. The tableau held. Padmé, arms outstretched. Anakin, lightsaber raised. Obi Wan, hand reaching out to his friend. Anakin lowered his lightsaber, thumbed it off. “You were my friend,” he repeated, in a voice barely above a whisper. He couldn’t handle this, didn’t want to think about it. He turned and ran from the room.

“Anakin, wait!” Obi Wan cried out as he ran, and he felt his mentor reaching out to him. He shut him out, shut down everything. He made himself slow to a walk before he reached the more public area, pulled up the hood of his robe and kept his head down to shield his reddened eyes and gasping breaths from those he passed. His feet took him without plan to Senator Palpatine’s door.

He was admitted instantly. Palpatine always had time for him, no matter how busy the great man was. Palpatine took one look at him and sat him down, served him a steaming cup hot of tea with his own two hands, sat with an arm around him as his tremors subsided and his sobs faded.

“I can see something has greatly disturbed you, my friend. Let me help lift this burden, if I may.” The senator’s voice was warm, fatherly, and waves of calm emanated off of him.

Anakin took a gulp of tea, welcoming the burn as the hot liquid flowed down his throat, distracting him from his other pain.

“I have confessed to you before, senator, my feelings for Padmé. How they are forbidden, how I must divorce myself of them, because they are not the Jedi way.”

“You have, yes indeed. So why do I feel as if something has changed?”

Anakin’s calm deserted him. He rose, flinging the cup across the room. “Because they have lied to me. Because they have taken what is precious to me for themselves.” He began pacing the room. “All of them have lied to me, but Obi Wan especially. He did not want me to separate myself from Padmé because of my training, because it is not the Jedi way. He wanted me to abandon my pursuit of her because he wanted her for himself. And now he has her.”

He stood, stiff, hands clenched at his side. Waves of the Force rippled off of him and throughout the room. 

With his back turned to Palpatine Anakin didn’t see the look of anger that flashed across the senator’s face as several small sculptures shattered. Palpatine’s voice remained calm, soothing. “Ah. I see. This pains you greatly, I know, but it presents an opportunity for you, Anakin.”

This wasn’t what Anakin had expected to hear. His body relaxed and the room settled as he turned back to Palpatine. “What do you mean?”

Palpatine smiled at him. “There is power to be had through the Force, but there are other kinds of power in the universe, Anakin. You now have access to this, the power of the secret kept.”

Anakin blinked in confusion.

“This pains you, I know, but it will benefit you. You must go to them. You must tell them you understand, that you will keep their secret for them. And in return they may be asked, in time, to provide you with small favors in payment for doing so.”

“Favors? What good do favors do me.” Anakin scowled.

“Trust me, my young friend. This puts you at an advantage. Obi Wan will now have no choice but to stand with you against the Jedi Council if they continue to put limits on you. His voice has been added to theirs, his doubts fueling their denials. Now he will be your staunchest advocate in return for your guarding of his shame.”

Denial and doubt were plain on Anakin’s face. Palpatine rose, smile fixed in place, and put his hands on Anakin’s shoulders, squeezing gently.

“I know it is hard, Anakin, but I speak from many years’ experience. Loves such as these rarely stand up to the passage of time, but the strength of secrets only grows.”

Although his heart ached, Anakin followed Palpatine’s advice. The relief that he saw in both Padme’s and Obi Wan’s face was a knife in his heart, but as the senator predicted Obi Wan began standing with him against the Jedi Council and began teaching him things that he had previously withheld. And when Palpatine requested Anakin be appointed as his representative to the Jedi Council, when Mace Windu tried to withhold the title of Jedi Master from him, it was because of Obi Wan’s arguments that the council overruled him and granted the honor to Anakin. 

From the outside it appeared that Anakin had everything. He was recognized as a great force in the Jedi Order and was respected by his peers, he had the advantage of powerful friends, and seemingly his every wish was granted. But when he caught a stray look or thought between Obi Wan and Padme, when a core of jealousy and anger festered within him, he wondered if this was truly what he desired.

**Author's Note:**

> Feel free to come say hi over on [tumblr](http://thewightknight.tumblr.com/).


End file.
